Our $35 secondhand chairs – the ones we found here – aren’t quite finished yet (picture me tapping my foot and impatiently waiting for paint to dry), but we thought we’d share the makeover progress in real time. First, a quick rundown of all the colors John and I considered for the office chairs:
- emerald green
- turquoise, aqua, or dark teal
- dark gray or light gray
- plum
- navy
- white or light celery
- lime green or grellow
Here they are in the office before paint and new upholstery (a few different perspectives) to refresh your memory:
Here’s how our thinking evolved as we debated those colors over the past month:
- From the dining room you can see two bright teal bookcases flanking the doorway, so choosing turquoise, aqua, or dark teal felt too matchy from that view.
- After painting the walls gray, gray chairs felt a little too blah.
- Navy was close to the chairs’ existing color and felt too dark.
- White or light celery seemed safe and might lean Palm Beach-y, so we wanted something bolder and more cheerful.
- Plum worried us because it could be as dark as the original color.
That left emerald green or grellow (green-yellow). I was rooting for emerald for a while since it would contrast nicely with the lighter grellow in the stencil and on the kitchen walls. But after holding up swatch after swatch, the emeralds we found had cool tones that didn’t pair well with the warm, golden undertones in the kitchen and stencil. They just felt off.
The winner ended up being grellow. It made sense: a saturated, bold grellow would tie into the light grellow on the kitchen walls and the softer grellow in the stencil while complementing nearby pieces like the indigo light fixture, a teal globe on the file cabinet, the dark teal bookcases in the dining room, and the green runner and curtains. The trick was to pick a color distinctly bolder than the soft kitchen shade so the room wouldn’t feel monochromatic. Enter “Sue the Napkin,” stage right:
Sue, our color muse, helped us choose a deep greeny-yellow. We held a Benjamin Moore swatch called Olive Tree up to the napkin and loved it. It felt right, so we planned to get spray paint in that shade. Since the woven chair backs would be impossible to brush evenly, spray paint was the route to go. We called our local Benjamin Moore store to check if they mixed custom spray cans; some stores do. Ours could, but it was too late in the day for them to make any that afternoon.
Later that evening at Michael’s we discovered Krylon spray paint in “Ivy Leaf,” which matched the Olive Tree swatch almost perfectly. We grabbed two cans at about $5.99 each. Update: Benjamin Moore told us later that custom spray paint would have required a six-can minimum at $7–$10 per can, so finding the Krylon at Michael’s was a happy accident.
Back at home, I removed the seat cushions (each was attached with four screws) to make painting easier.
I wiped the chairs down with a liquid deglosser (we like Next Liquid Deglosser by Crown because it’s non-flammable, biodegradable, and low-VOC) and set them outside on cardboard for primer. The original paint was worn but unusually smooth, so sanding wasn’t necessary. I applied several thin, even coats of primer from about 8–10 inches away, keeping my arm moving to avoid drips, and let it dry for around 40 minutes.
Reading the instructions on the can reminded me that the topcoat should be applied within an hour or waited on for 24 hours. I chose to apply it within the hour, spraying multiple very thin coats until the color built up to full coverage. The initial coats look light and translucent, but they gradually layer to solid color.
A few spray painting tips I follow:
- Skip the cheapest cans and choose quality options; cheap spray paint often performs poorly. I like brands with a trigger nozzle that sprays thin and even without getting paint all over your fingers.
- Always keep the can moving to avoid drips and pooling.
- Hold the can about 8–10 inches from the surface for a mist, not a heavy wet coat.
- Multiple thin coats are better than one thick, drippy coat.
- Spray paint contains VOCs, so use it outside with a mask and allow full curing time per the can’s instructions (usually 24 hours; we often let it cure longer).
- To reduce off-gassing inside, seal spray-painted surfaces with two thin coats of a low-VOC, non-toxic topcoat like Safecoat Acrylacq.
When the chairs were painted they looked cheerful and fresh.
Make that two of them — just hanging out in the yard while drying.
It took three cans in total, so I returned for one more. For the seat fabric I used leftover yardage from a previous dining room curtain project.
Holding the fabric up to the freshly painted chairs confirmed the color choice — they looked great together. I originally planned to use that fabric for roman shades, but using it on the seats felt like the right compromise so the room wouldn’t feel too matchy.
Today’s project is reupholstering the seats. I’ll share the upholstery details and after photos in a day or two once everything is dry enough to put back together for pictures.
We’ll be back later this morning with a rare 11 a.m. post (instead of our usual 2 p.m.), which frees up my afternoon to finish the upholstery. Everyone wins.
Psst — we’re also over on BabyCenter sharing a great resource for DIY projects to do with kids. There are a lot of fun ideas to add to our someday-to-do list with Clara.